Idaho County to Vote on Reversing Renewables Ban — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Jeff Hough, the lone dissenter when Bannock County commissioners voted 2-1 in March 2024 to ban utility-scale solar and wind, has since become commission chair and is pushing a new ordinance that would allow solar, wind, and nuclear development, with a vote set for this fall.
- The reversal push comes as Idaho Power projects a 1-gigawatt jump in electricity demand by 2030 — roughly 26% above current levels — and Bannock County is home to the Populus substation, a grid juncture serving Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and the Pacific Northwest.
- A Daily Yonder and Canary Media analysis found nearly 1 in 4 U.S. counties had some kind of clean energy ban, moratorium, or impediment in 2025, up from 15% in 2023; more than 60% of counties with bans are rural.
- The original ban traces to Hough himself, who in October 2023 spearheaded a six-month moratorium after an Idaho Association of Counties conference spotlighted the Lava Ridge Wind Project — a 1-GW, 57,000-acre development the Trump Interior Department canceled in August 2025.
- Hecate Energy, which had optioned 400 acres from grain farmer Dale Lish in 2023, pulled out of Bannock County entirely after declining to renew contracts because of the ordinance; Balanced Rock Power's proposed 300-MW Harmon Solar Project remains stalled.
- Neighboring Power and Bingham counties generated $909,000 and $639,000 respectively in renewable energy tax revenue in 2024 — sums Hough cites to argue reversing the ban would bring similar dollars into Bannock County's slow-growing communities.
- Bannock County remains split: farmer Steve Criddle called the situation "confrontational," and Hough's 2026 Republican primary opponent — running on an anti-solar platform — captured 70% of the vote in Downey despite Hough winning overall by 14 points.
Why it matters: Idaho Power projects a 26% demand jump by 2030, and Bannock County sits on the Populus substation serving four states — but Hecate Energy has already exited over the ban. Neighboring counties collected $1.5M in renewable tax revenue in 2024, the sums Hough wants to bring home.
Ask SkimNews
